Gaza Toll Rises to 690 on Day 16 of Israeli Offensive as Meshaal Rejects Truce unless Blockade Lifted
At least 687 Palestinians have been killed as Israel continued bombarding Gaza for the sixteenth day in a row, while fighting between Israeli troops and Palestinian militants was briefly suspended Wednesday in several flashpoint areas of the Strip to allow convoys of ambulances to retrieve the wounded.
Amid the ongoing violence, Hamas rejected a ceasefire to end 16 days of deadly fighting unless the blockade on the Gaza Strip is lifted, its chief Khaled Meshaal said in Doha.
"We reject today and will reject in the future" a ceasefire before negotiations on Hamas's demands, which include lifting years of blockade against the Palestinian enclave, Meshaal told reporters.
Listing the eight-year blockade is a main demand of Hamas which also wants the opening of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt and Israel to free prisoners.
As international calls for an end to the fighting in Gaza mount, Meshaal insisted that the Islamist Hamas "welcomes all efforts to end the aggression" and "does not object" to mediation by any party, including Egypt.
"We will not accept any initiative that does not lift the blockade on our people and that does not respect their sacrifices.
"Let us agree on achieving our demands and we will then agree on the zero-hour for a ceasefire," Meshaal said.
In the latest Israeli attacks, tank fire killed five people, including two children, in southern Gaza, emergency services spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said, as Wednesday's body count reached at least 56 Palestinians.
A series of other strikes and shellings throughout Gaza brought the total number killed from 16 days of conflict between Israel and Hamas to 687 Palestinians.
Another air strike on Wednesday killed a two-year-old girl, Qudra said.
Early on Wednesday, Israeli forces shot dead a Palestinian man in clashes at the West Bank village of Hussan, near Bethlehem, Palestinian security sources told Agence France Presse.
They named the man as Mahmud al-Hamamra, 32, and said he was shot in the chest while throwing rocks at Israelis.
The Israel military told AFP it had no immediate word on such an incident but would look into it.
The clash was reported shortly after the Palestinian leadership, meeting in Ramallah, called for "widespread popular protest in solidarity with Gaza and the resistance."
Of the over 56 Palestinians killed in fighting on Wednesday, most of the victims were in Khuzaa, medics say, although no exact number was quoted.
Meanwhile in southern Israel, a foreign worker died after being hit by a mortar round fired from the Gaza Strip, police said.
"There was a foreign worker killed by a mortar," police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told AFP, bringing to three the number of civilians in Israel killed by fire from Gaza since the latest round of violence began on July 8.
The victim, whose nationality was not immediately publicized, was critically wounded while working in a greenhouse on a moshav collective village in the area of Ashkelon regional council. Police said he died on the way to hospital.
So far, the violence has killed more than 690 Palestinians in Gaza, and 32 people in Israel, including 29 soldiers and three civilians.
Also on Wednesday, fighting between Israeli troops and Hamas militants was briefly suspended in several flashpoint areas of Gaza to allow convoys of ambulances to retrieve the wounded, an ICRC spokeswoman said.
"A convoy of seven ambulances and two Red Cross cars went inside Shejaiya to evacuate the wounded," ICRC spokeswoman Cecilia Goin told AFP, saying the move had been coordinated with both Israel and Hamas.
A second convoy of nine ambulances and two Red Cross vehicles went into Khuzaa near the southern city of Khan Yunis, an area which also came under very heavy Israeli fire overnight, she said.
A third team went into the northern town of Beit Hanun, the agency said.
"We have coordinated with both Hamas and the Israelis to be able to take out the wounded," Goin told AFP, indicating both sides had agreed to hold their fire, although it was not immediately clear for how long.
There was no immediate comment from the Israelis and an AFP correspondent in Khuzaa said the shooting appeared to be ongoing.
Since the early morning, there have been major clashes between Israeli troops and Palestinian militants in Khuzaa, which lies on the Israeli border, some six kilometers (four miles) southeast of Khan Yunis.
Source: Agence France Presse, Naharnet
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